Mission Perks
by littlenipper
Summary: Sometimes when you both have nothing, you are each others something. But with arrogant Draco Malfoy and persistent Hermione Granger, will they ever figure it out?
1. Afternoon

Hermione Granger has always been good at covering things up, especially when it comes to emotions. So here she sat on a late Sunday afternoon. The birds outside had started to sing the song of the evening. She hummed silently to herself, knowing she was going to be here for a while, so she might as well keep herself some company. She needed to keep herself sane.

"Hermione." A voice chirped from outside the office door.

"Come in." Hermione replied, straitening herself in the chair she was seated in and brushed the loose hair from her tired face.

The door creaked open, sending a little wave of shock down Hermione's spine. In the doorway stood a petite, dirty blond haired young woman. She had these beautiful silvery grey eyes that shone brightly amongst the afternoon light beaming through the office windows. "Good Afternoon Hermione." She greeted in a dreamy voice that would remind one of an angel.

"Luna. What are you doing here don't you have Rolf to go home to?" Hermione asked.

"Rolf is out of the country." Luna shrugged. "You're the one who needs to get home, Hermione you look very tired. Do you want me to take over for you?"

"No, no." Hermione disagreed. "You go home Luna, I won't be long."

"Look, Hermione you've had a long weekend of hard work. Go home, make a hot chocolate and have a warm bath and relax. You deserve it." Luna tried to convince her, but Hermione stayed glued to her chair.

"I'm sorry Luna, I must finish my work." Hermione sighed, shuffling in her seat.

Luna shook her head at Hermione. "Hermione you work too hard for your own good. Just because you ended your relationship Ron, doesn't mean you can pile a whole load of stress onto your back." At that, Luna straighten her stance and left the office, leaving the door wide open for strangers to wander in. Not that there would be anyone at the office at such time and day.

Hermione sighed to herself. "Very unlike Luna." She muttered.

After a few minutes, a wandering Draco Malfoy strolled past the open office door. He was curious as to why there was light coming from an office on such a wonderful Sunday afternoon he popped his head in. "Granger, fancy seeing you here." He mumbled, of course it was Granger.

"Malfoy." Hermione groaned.

"Granger not in a good mood." Malfoy teased.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Granger sighed brushing the loose curls out of her face. She really wasn't in the mood for pesky interruptions such of Draco Malfoy.

"I don't want anything." Draco stated smartly, a small grin forming on his face.

"Then why are you here?" Hermione stammered, determined to get the ex-Slytherin out of her office.

"You see, you left your door open and I saw light so I wanted to check it out." Draco explained, the grin still planted firmly on his face.

"Well there isn't anything here to see, so please leave." She shook her head and went back to filing the paperwork, like she was meant to.

Draco shrugged and left the bushy haired girl to her business. "Must be that Weasel again," he muttered. "Probably can't control himself and pissed inside her." Draco spat the words out of his mouth in disgust. He shrugged off the dirty thought that had come to mind and continued to stroll down the hallway. "I have to get home to-

He looked down at his shoes. "Nothing," he sighed.

Back in the office, Hermione had stopped sorting the paper, and her head was placed in her palms. Her face was covered by her loose curls but not enough to cover the tear rolling absentmindedly down her hand. She felt weird inside, knowing that today she wouldn't be going home to Ron sitting at the dining table chewing away at a drumstick with his dirty boots on the table. No more cheeky grins being passed her way every time they passed in the hallways. No more Ron.

She squeezed her eyes shut, causing a few tears to roll down. "Right," she mutter to herself, removing her hands from her face and wiping the tears away. "Back to work."


	2. Mission

"I'm sorry Miss Granger, but the only other person eligible is Draco Malfoy. Unless you would rather spend the next few weeks working with Pansy Parkinson." Kingsley Shacklebolt replied.

"But." Hermione piped.

"No _but's_ Miss Granger, you work with Mr Malfoy or you will most likely fail the mission." Kingsley informed. "I'm sorry but that's just how it is."

"What about Harry? Surely he can't be that busy!" She argued. But she knew Harry was always busy.

Kingsley chuckled at Hermione's determination to not work with Malfoy, and he simply just strolled out of the office. "She could have well been a Slytherin." Kingsley muttered to himself as he paced down the hall towards his next meeting.

Hermione Granger was furious with Shacklebolt about her accompany for the mission. Despite the fact they'd spent the past 30minutes having a row about it, she always knew Shacklebolt would win. She sighed, apparating back to her muggle apartment where she had been staying since breaking the engagement with Ron.

She fell on the couch and brought her legs up so they were dangling off the end of the cheap black leather couch. She closed her eyes and thought of what the outcome of this mission would be and as she did, she was caught up in other thoughts. She couldn't get her mind off Ron. Ron Weasley, someone she thought she would spend the rest of her life with, have a family and a comfortable home. But the love she felt, wasn't romantic or anything. They were just friends, and that's all it was meant to be. Not romance just friendship.

As she napped, she felt a cold tounge swipe across her cheek. She lazily opened her eyes to a cats bum. "Crookshanks!" She huffed, picking the cat up by underneath its belly and popping it beside her on the couch.

The cat had a mild expression on his face as he curled up beside his owner. Crookshanks was definitely keen on staying in that exact position for the next few hours. Hermione pleased with the position she was in on the couch closed her eyes again.

Crookshanks purred and the doorbell rang.

"What now?" Hermione moaned. She shook her head and lazily helped herself off the couch. She straightened her work blazer, and pushed a hair put of her face. She approached the door and grudgingly opened it up. "Hello?" She greeted. "Malfoy?"

"Don't act so surprised Granger. I'm really not that hideous." He sneered, pushing past her frail body and into the old apartment. His eyes quickly scanned the neat apartment, he judged the size and sniffed the air. "Well doesn't this place have such a dull look to it? Suits you, dull and miserable."

"What are you doing here Malfoy?" Hermione stuttered as she watched her old classmate and current workmate inspect her living space.

"Well you see, we do have a mission to prepare for, Granger." He informed her.

"You don't just invite yourself into my home and demand things." Hermione stammered.

Malfoy smirked. "Well there's no sign on your door telling people not to invite themselves inside."

"It's rude Malfoy! I don't care what the reason is get out." She hissed pointing her hand at the door.

Draco shook his head and continued to inspect her apartment. He took a few feeble steps forward and sniffed the air once again. The place smelt just like her

"What do you think you're doing?" Hermione asked accidently meeting Draco's wandering eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" He repeated. "I didn't come here to chat."

"Then why are you here!" She demanded anxiously.

Draco sighed, "Really Granger?" He said. "You're that daft?"

Draco raised his hand to his head and rubbed his temples ferociously. Hermione noticed how tired he really looked, how skinny he had become. He wasn't as pale as she remembered him to be. But he had never recovered since 6th year.

"I'm sorry." She apologized. "I'm tired too."

"Granger? Apologizing? Never." Draco laughed despite the fact his head was aching from rubbing his temples too hard. "Now. I didn't want to do this Granger. But like you, I was told that you're the only other eligible for such task. I am honoured to take part in this, despite the fact you'll be following me around all the time."

"Me? Following you around? More like you're following me around. You don't know anything Malfoy."

Draco rolled his eyes. "We're going tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Why, that's way too early!" Hermione protested. She needed to pack, sort things out and say goodbyes. Sort the last of her paperwork… The list went on.

"So I can leave this wretched place." He replied waving his arm around in exaggeration.

"Since when has a Malfoy been so willing to leave with a Mudblood?"

"Since this Malfoy no longer has an accepting reputation amongst wizards, Granger." Malfoy snorted. "I'm known to be a rich, mean, muggle hating bastard. How do you think that makes me feel?"

Hermione put a questioning look on her face. "I don't know, honestly."

"This must be the first time the brightest witch of our age has been clueless?"

"Shut up Malfoy." Hermione gritted her teeth.

Draco raised his eyebrow, "So down to business." He announced opening up his man satchel and taking a stack of papers. "Here we have every file of our missing Deatheaters."

Hermione walked over to her coffee table and bent down. She picked up the first sheet and read out, "Known Deatheater, Jugson. First name, unknown. Hogwarts student, former Slytherin Quidditch team member…"

Draco shook his head at Hermione. "I know the face. That's all."

"Well, at least we have an advantage." She shrugged. Hermione continued to flick through the pages, scanning the names and little details. She recognized a few names, and could even place faces. A few of them had already been captured and imprisoned or had died in battle.

"We can't take these with us." She finally said.

Draco sighed, "Why not?"

"We can't just flick through them whenever we want. Takes too much time." She pointed out, as she began to pile the sheets together again.

"Mind if I keep them till tomorrow? Seeming as we are leaving then." She asked.

Draco rubbed his tired eyes and reached into his man satchel again. He reached around for a few seconds till he brought out a book. Hermione realised what it was.

"That's-

"Yours, you left it in the common room." He finished off for her.

"It's been two years." She said.

Draco cursed under his breath. "For fucks sake." He muttered. "You really think I could just pop into your office and give you a stupid book back."

Hermione flinched at his words.

"You know what, don't have the book. I'll just keep it." He shouted, stuffing the book back into his satchel. "I'll see you tomorrow." Then he stormed out of the apartment.

Hermione scrunched her eyebrows together in frustration. "Just when I thought he'd improved." She sighed.

"Crookshanks." She called. The cat came bounding at her and she picked it up. Crookshanks purred and licked Hermione's tired face. "Bed time." She smiled.

After she'd gotten changed, and tucked herself into bed. She closed her eyes and let he imagination take over. A good 15 minutes into her dream, she was fast asleep with a snoring Crookshanks by her side.


End file.
